May 26, 2012

"You did the work, you've been a whore," [says Louise]. "You'll never get rid of that name. They'll always call you names, so be one."...

"This is the story we wanted to tell," directors Gabrielle Provaas and Rob Schroder said in a statement. "Louise and Martine are real old-fashioned Amsterdam hookers: liberated, cheerful and not scared of anybody."

May be that is what gave them the idea in the first place. It is a tourist attraction in Amsterdam and have seen scantily dressed women sitting by the window reading a book! They get medical check up every month and other benefits from the state.

Ouwehoeren...literally old whores....the words remind me of Oudegracht which sounds dirty (it is) but is the proper name of the "old canal" in Utrecht. The word gracht doesn't sound at all like canal and it's not etymologically related. Gracht is more akin to our word grave or groove in the sense of ditch.

I would imagine that in younger days that, as a twin act, they would have been able to charge a premium. They probably made a ton of money, but easy come, easy go. Or maybe they just like their job and use this as an excuse to keep plugging away. Maybe some women feel that prostitution is a fulfillment of their sexual destiny.

Amsterdam certainly has its problems [especially with ethnic antagonisms] and even native residents are beginning to doubt the wisdom of its drug and prostitution policies [which attract what many consider to be undesirable people into the city], but Amsterdam is gorgeous and contains some of the world's greatest art, and the people can be wonderful. I would not describe it as "icky". passed ECDivid

Yes, the verb "fokken" means to breed, and unlike its English cognate it doesn't have an obscene ring to it. However, the name Fokkens has nothing to do with it. It means descendant of Fokke (which is a Frisian rather than a Dutch name).

Half a mile from where I live there's an antique bookshop whose owner bears the name Fukkink.

Some neutral English words sound like Dutch four letter words. (We call them three letter words.) It's hard not to think of Dutch "lul" when I hear Chet Baker (who met his end in Amsterdam) or Ella Fitzgerald sing "Oh, there's a lull in my life" ...